^
Died on 14 (10?) June 1698: Gerrit
Adriaenszoon Berckheyde, Dutch architectural painter baptized
as an infant on 06 June 1638. Brother and student of Job
Adriaenszoon Berckheyde [27 Jan 1630 – 23 Nov 1693]. He also studied
under Frans
Hals.
— During the 1650s the brothers made an extended trip to Germany along
the Rhine, visiting Cologne, Bonn, Mannheim and finally Heidelberg. Whether
this occurred before or after 1654, when Job became a master of the Guild
of Saint Luke in Haarlem, is uncertain. According to legend, the brothers
worked in Heidelberg for Charles Ludwig [–1680], Elector Palatine;
however, their inability to adapt to court life led them to return to Haarlem,
where Gerrit became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke on 27 July 1660.
In Haarlem the Berckheyde brothers shared a house and perhaps a studio as
well.
The idea that Job was the superior artist
and habitually contributed the figures to Gerrit’s architectural subjects
has been discounted, but the degree of their mutual influence and involvement
remains unclear. Confusion between them may have resulted from the similarity
of their signatures, where Job’s j resembles Gerrit’s g. Job also signed
his work with an H (for Hiob or Job) and with the monogram HB. Gerrit specialized
in a particular type of architectural subject, the townscape. His painted
work shows a debt not only to Pieter Saenredam’s conception of the building
portrait but also to Saenredam’s refined draftsmanship and dispassionate
attitude; these qualities mark Berckheyde as a classicist and akin to Vermeer.
Berckheyde favored views of monuments on large open squares, a choice that
distinguishes him from the other great Dutch townscape painter, Jan van
der Heyden, who preferred views along canals in which clarity was sacrificed
for pictorial effect.
— Gerrit Berckheyde was christened on 06 June 1638 in Haarlem. He
studied under his elder brother, the painter Job Berckheyde and Frans Hals.
Together with his brother, he worked in Heidelberg for a while for the Elector
Palatine. In around 1660 he returned to Haarlem and in the summer of that
year was admitted to the St Luke guild, the local society of artists. In
1698 he drowned in Haarlem's Brouwersvaart canal. After 1660, Berckheyde
painted almost only townscapes, mainly of Haarlem, Amsterdam and The Hague.
Despite the number of works he painted, and the frequent repetitions, he
always produced paintings of exceptional quality.

— LINKS
— The
Town Hall on the Dam, Amsterdam (1672, 34x42cm) _ Amsterdam town hall
is pictured here in bright sunlight in all its glory. The building was designed
by the painter and (mostly) architect Jacob van Campen [1595-1657]. The
first stone was laid in 1648, after the signing of the Treaty of Münster,
by which, after 80 years of war, Spain recognized the Dutch Republic as
a sovereign state, and which gave Gerard ter Borch II [1617-1681] the opportunity
to paint The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster, 15 May 1648 (46x60cm).
Van Campen left the technical execution of the building and its completion
to the city architect, Daniël Stalpaert. The enormous classical building
became famous even before it was completed in about 1700. The building soon
became known (locally) as the 'eighth wonder of the world'. This painting
emphasizes the general admiration of Van Campen's architecture. Berckheyde
has filled the canvas almost entirely with the building. To liven up the
painting he has placed a group of people and a horse in the foreground.
— The
Weigh House and the Crane on the Spaarne in Haarlem (32x45cm) _ This
is a characteristic part of Haarlem. The river, the Spaarne, was Haarlem's
main artery in the seventeenth century. On the Spaarne barges are shown
loaded with cargo. Goods imported into the city had to be weighed or measured
at the city's official public Weigh House, the large stone building on the
corner. The duty could then be assessed. The Weigh House was built in the
late 16th century of hard, blue Namur stone. Weigh houses were usually free-standing
buildings, with wide open entrances on several sides. A variety of large
scales were kept in the hall. Heavy goods were hoisted out of the barges
by crane, which can be seen beside the Weigh House. The church spire on
the left belongs to the Bakenessen church. The Weigh House and the Bakenessen
church still dominate views of Haarlem.
Gerrit Berckheyde, who specialized in painting
views of towns, was a native of Haarlem. He frequently took his hometown
as the subject of his paintings, although he also immortalized Amsterdam
and The Hague. Berckheyde played subtly with light and shade in his paintings,
choosing the sun's position so that the stepped gables of the houses along
the Spaarne caught the full sun. Yet the façade of the Weigh House, which
most catches the eye in this painting, lies in shadow. The contrast between
light and shade on the spire of the Bakenessen church is also striking.
— The
Bend in the Herengracht near the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat in Amsterdam (1672,
40x63cm) _ The canal and houses have been depicted rigidly and symmetrical.
Gerrit Berckheyde has painted the bend on Herengracht canal between Leidsestraat
and Vijzelstraat with extreme accuracy. This was a newly built part of Amsterdam,
part of an extensive plan to expand the city in the seventeenth century.
That is why the canal looks so bare. Later on, this part of the canal was
to become known as the Golden Bend due to the magnificent buildings and
wealthy inhabitants.
Berckheyde has placed the buildings in perspective
with mathematical precision. A cool light accentuates the places that are
still empty. To the right, on the side at the corner of Nieuwe Spiegelstraat,
a new house is still to be built. The piles are visible in the ground. Shadow
covers the foreground and the right side of the canal. The houses on both
sides are reflected in the water of the canal. There is a little activity,
either on water or land.
This is a remarkable sight - a canal without
trees. Unconcealed, the façades stand out in all their glory. In
1685 Berckheyde painted another view of the Golden Bend, although this time
from the other side. It is just as bare as the view from 1672. However there
are plenty of trees in View
of the Herengracht, Amsterdam (1670; 900x1074pix, 186kb) painted
by Jan van der Heyden [1637-1712].
This part of Herengracht was monopolized by
the wealthier citizens of Amsterdam who could afford to build their own
houses. Many of these still stand today, although most have undergone some
changes over the years. The proud statues on the gables have disappeared
and the steps leading up to the house on the right have gone. Hardly any
of these buildings are homes anymore. Today, most are occupied by businesses.
In the seventeenth century, people flooded
into Amsterdam from rural areas and abroad. This was stimulated by the growth
in the economy and the relative religious freedom in the city. Amsterdam
was constantly expanding beyond the city limits. In the seventeenth century
a new phase of growth took place. The south side of Herengracht, where the
Golden Bend lies, was constructed after 1657, as were the south sides of
Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht. It was at this time that Amsterdam acquired
its characteristic semi-circular shape.
— The
Market Square at Haarlem with Saint-Bavo (1696)
— The
Interior of the Grote Kerk (Saint-Bavo) at Haarlem (1673, 61x85cm)
— Amsterdam,
the Nieuwezijds near the Bloemmarkt (1675, 54x61cm)
— The
Exterior Of The Church Of Saint Bavo In Harlem (1666, 60x84cm)
— Dam
Square, Amsterdam (41x55cm)

^
>Died on 14 June 1907: Giuseppe
Pellizza da Volpedo, Italian painter born on 28
July 1868.
— He came from a farming family and in 1884 began attending drawing
classes at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. He also began to study painting,
first under Giuseppe Puricelli [1832–1894] and then in 1886–1887 under Pio
Sanquirico [1847–1900], but in 1887 he broke off his studies at the Brera
and moved to Rome in order to attend the Accademia di S Luca. He very soon
became disappointed by the teaching there, which he combined with attendance
at the life class at the Académie de France, and went to Florence, where
from 1888 he was a student of Giovanni Fattori at the Accademia di Belle
Arti.
After a few months he returned to Volpedo,
where he began painting portraits and landscapes that show the influence
of the Macchiaioli in their limpid layers of light and geometrically balanced
compositions (e.g. Portrait of the Poor Girl and La Piazza
di Volpedo, both 1888). In the autumn of 1888, wanting to consolidate
his drawing skills, Pellizza moved to Bergamo, where he studied under Cesare
Tallone at the Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti. In October 1889 he visited
the Exposition Universelle in Paris, but early in 1890 he returned for two
months to the Accademia Carrara.
— Nato a Volpedo, un piccolo centro della campagna alessandrina, Giuseppe
Pellizza scelse di vivere lontano dalle capitali artistiche europee di fine
Ottocento in un isolamento che rispondeva alla sua necessità di poter riflettere
e operare in assoluta indipendenza. Nello stesso tempo, però, l'artista
"si nutriva" di frequenti viaggi e soprattutto di continui scambi con i
più importanti centri italiani che lo videro, di volta in volta, presenza
significativa nelle maggiori rassegne espositive. Un profondo impegno critico
connotò sempre la sua produzione consentendogli di raggiungere risultati
di statura internazionale nell'ambito della tecnica divisionista usata anche
come strumento flessibile e adatto a inverare contenuti via via più impegnativi
nel rapporto col vero, e nella interpretazione simbolica della natura e
della vita umana.
— BIOGRAFIA

^
Died on 14 June 1926: Mary
Stevenson Cassatt, expatriate US Impressionist
painter born on 22 May 1844, specialized in Children.
 Painter and printmaker. Attended Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts 1861-1865. Worked briefly with Charles Joshua Chaplin in Paris but
preferred to study and copy old masters independently. After a brief return
to the US, travelled to Italy. Spent 8 months at Parma studying Correggio.
Exhibited for the first of five successive years at the Paris Salon in 1872.
Became member of the Impressionist group in 1877, and exhibited with them
1879-1881 and 1886. Cassatt greatly admired Gustave Courbet, but was particularly
allied with the Impressionists. Edgar Degas was her close friend and influenced
her style in the late 1870s. Soon after 1900, Cassatt's eyesight began to
fail and by 1914 she was no longer working.
 Mary Cassatt lived and worked in France as an important member of
the Impressionist group. Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.
In 1861 she began to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts in Philadelphia, but proclaimed her independence by leaving in 1866
to paint in France. By 1872, after studying in the major museums of Europe,
her style began to mature, and she settled in Paris. There her work attracted
the attention of the French painter Edgar Degas, who invited her to exhibit
with his fellow impressionists. One of the works she showed was The
Cup of Tea (1879), a portrait of her sister Lydia in luminescent pinks.
Beginning in 1882 Cassatt's style took a new turn. Influenced, like Degas,
by Japanese woodcuts, she began to emphasize line over mass and experimented
with asymmetric composition — as in The Boating Party (1893) —
and informal, natural gestures and positions. Portrayals of mothers and
children in intimate relationship and domestic settings became her theme.
Her portraits were not commissioned; instead, she used members of her own
family as subjects. France awarded Cassatt the Legion of Honor in 1904;
although she had been instrumental in advising the first American collectors
of impressionist works, recognition came more slowly in the United States.
With loss of sight she was no longer able to paint after 1914.

 Mary Cassatt was the daughter of an affluent Pittsburgh businessman,
whose French ancestry had endowed him with a passion for that country. She
studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and
then traveled extensively in Europe, finally settling in Paris in 1874.
In that year she had a work accepted at the Salon and in 1877 made the acquaintance
of Degas,
with whom she was to be on close terms throughout his life. His art and
ideas had a considerable influence on her own work; he introduced her to
the Impressionists
and she participated in the exhibitions of 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1886, refusing
to do so in 1882 when Degas did not.
She was a great practical support to the
movement as a whole, both by providing direct financial help and by promoting
the works of Impressionists in the USA, largely through her brother Alexander.
By persuading him to buy works by Manet,
Monet,
Morisot,
Renoir,
Degas and Pissarro,
she made him the first important collector of such works in the US. She
also advised and encouraged her friends the Havemeyers to build up their
important collection of works by Impressionists and other contemporary French
artists.
Her own works, on the occasions when they
were shown in various mixed exhibitions in the US, were very favorably received
by the critics and contributed not a little to the acceptance of Impressionism
there. Despite her admiration for Degas, she was no slavish imitator of
his style, retaining her own very personal idiom throughout her career.
From him, and other Impressionists, she acquired an interest in the rehabilitation
of the pictorial qualities of everyday life, inclining towards the domestic
and the intimate rather than the social and the urban (Lady at the Teatable,
1885), with a special emphasis on the mother and child theme in the 1890s
(The Bath, 1891). She also derived from Degas and others a sense
of immediate observation, with an emphasis on gestural significance. Her
earlier works were marked by a certain lyrical effulgence and gentle, golden
lighting, but by the 1890s, largely as a consequence of the exhibition of
Japanese prints held in Paris at the beginning of that decade, her draftsmanship
became more emphatic, her colors clearer and more boldly defined. The exhibition
also confirmed her predilection for printmaking techniques, and her work
in this area must count amongst the most impressive of her generation. She
lived in France all her life, though her love of her adopted countrymen
did not increase with age, and her latter days were clouded with bitterness.

^
 Mary Cassatt especially liked children, doting on her nieces and
nephews and the offspring of friends. Naturalism and sensuality of a pure,
elemental, and nonsexual sort are the hallmarks of Cassatt's portrayals
of childhood during the 1880s and 1890s. An example is Children
on the Shore, which she showed at the last Impressionist exhibition,
in 1886. While this seaside subject is unique in her oeuvre, the close-up
focus on the pair of toddlers and the firm draftsmanship are typical of
the artist's style in the 1880s. This painting has the sharp outline that
things and people have on the sand with the background of water and sky.
The short arms and the dollish faces let you guess the flesh under a thick
laver of suntan. The sensuousness of Cassatt's rendering of youngsters in
Children in a Garden, makes them like flowers in the heat.
The physicality in Cassatt's work seems to
have made some uncomfortable. Eloquently capturing a moment between rest
and play, Portrait
of a Little Girl portrays the daughter of friends of Degas
in an interior with Cassatt's dog. Cassatt submitted the painting to the
US section of the 1878 Paris Exposition universelle: its rejection enraged
her. The jury could have been affronted by the girl's insouciant sprawl:
she has flopped into the chair, looking hot, disheveled, exhausted, even
bored. With her clothing pushed up to reveal her legs and petticoat and
her left arm lifted and bent around her head, the young model can be perceived
as totally unconscious and innocent or as coquettish and sexually precocious.
It has been argued that the girl's pose derives from the traditional, erotic
odalisque and thus was intended to foreshadow her adult sexuality. But in
fact it seems that the attraction of this image lies in its naturalism.
Children are less self-conscious than adults; they continually, rearrange
their clothes and limbs and are often unaware of social conventions. Thus
the work can be seen to reflect the then-current view of children as pure
and unfettered beings. The jury may have objected to the artist's radical
handling of the background. As in her domestic interiors of the time, she
reduced spatial depth by choosing a sharp, high angle for the floor, crowding
the chairs together, and abruptly cropping the windows. Again, as in Children
on Shore, the viewpoint from which the subject is observed is low and
empathetic  the same level from which a child would see.
Cassatt had completely absorbed from her
Impressionist colleagues Caillebotte,
Degas, and Renoir, as well
as her study of Japanese prints, the modern idea that the background of
a painting might be as significant as the foreground. She understood that
establishing a tension between the two would capture the immediacy of vision,
as well as mimic or falsify by turns, the focal shifts of human sight and
perception. Thus the space and the objects in Portrait of a Little Girl
that surround the figure seem to be in motion; the floor lifts up, and the
chairs appear to have slid into various, almost accidental positions, not
unlike that of the young girl. These changing elements affect our perception
of the painting's psychological subtext: in contrast to one made clear by
direct, outward gaze, that of Cassatt's subject is more complicated
and elusive; the little girl's sideways glance, which avoids ours, makes
her independent of us. She is in a world of her own, one that adults could
fully understand only by recapturing their childhood personae.

 The most famous female Impressionist
painter, Mary Cassatt, was born in Allegheny, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Cassatt family was affluent and cultured: Mary's father was a stockbroker,
while her mother, who came from an old established Pennsylvania family,
was an accomplished woman who spoke French and read widely, and provided
Mary with an excellent example to follow. It is, perhaps, no accident that
so many of the women in Mary Cassatt's paintings are engaged in simple,
self-contained tasks like reading or sewing, since these were the everyday
activities of the Cassatt household.
As a child, Mary traveled widely in Europe, since
the family moved from Paris to Heidelberg and Darmstadt in search of a specialist
who could help cure her brother Robbie's diseased knee joint, and to find
the superior schooling that her brother Alexander needed for his future
engineering career. This travel enabled Mary to learn both French and German
while she was still young - linguistic skills that were prove immensely
useful in later life.
In 1861, when she was sixteen, Mary Cassatt
decided to study art seriously and enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts, apparently against the wishes of her father, who thought it
inadvisable that she should extend herself beyond the domestic role for
which she was intended. She remained there for four years before moving
back to Europe with her mother for a two-year stay before the breakout of
the Franco-Prussian war. Henceforth, Mary was to spend most of her life
in exile from her native country, reflecting a feeling among some women
of her generation that Europe offered an escape from what they saw as the
oppressive, patriarchal attitudes of the US. She was later to say; "After
all, give me France. Women do not have to fight for recognition here if
they do serious work. I suppose it is Mrs. Potter Palmer's French blood
which gives her organizing powers and determination that women should be
someone and not something."

On
her return to Europe in 1872, Mary Cassatt went to Parma in Italy where
she stayed for several months studying the paintings of the Italian Masters
Correggio and Parmagianino, and where she may have also studied graphic
art with Carlo Raimondi. It says a great deal about the determination of
the young artist that she was prepared to brave a somewhat lonely and isolated
existence in order to achieve her aim. It is also significant that she should
have felt a need to turn to these two particular painters, as they were
both masters of the Madonna-and-child theme, and subject paintings of women
and children were to prove so critical to her own work. From Parma, the
artist went to Madrid, where she spent some time absorbing the lessons of
Velazquez in the Prado, and where she painted the Spanish-influenced Torero
and A Young Girl. From Madrid, Mary went to Antwerp where
she studied the art of Rubens for a time.
Cassatt knew and befriended Edouard
Manet. The two artists lived near each other, had mutual friends, and
met from time to time. Although she and Manet
did not seem to have the same close relationship that she had with Edgar
Degas, Cassatt knew him well, and in 1880 even spent the summer with
her family at Marly-le-Roi near Manet's villa. She was also highly influenced
by his art, and many of her early works show Manet's
broad touch and his strong tonal contrasts. She was responsible for sending
many of his paintings to the US.
The early years in Paris were a particularly
happy time for Mary Cassatt, and this gaiety is reflected in the subject
matter she chose for her paintings. She depicted young girls setting in
the loge at the opera, women taking tea, knitting and reading. Many of her
models were drawn from her close family and friends, such as her mother
and her sister Lydia, who had moved to Paris to live with her in 1877. On
the whole, Cassatt preferred to paint peasant women who took care of their
own children, rather than the more affluent mothers who delegated the task
to nannies or nursemaids.
In 1891, Mary Cassatt had her first one-woman
show at the gallery of Durand-Ruel. The year after, she was invited by Mrs.
Potter Palmer to paint the south tympanum in the Women's Building at the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago - a commission she gladly accepted,
as she had always been a champion of the feminist cause. Her chosen theme
was "Modern Woman", which she illustrated with a three-part composition.
In the center she showed "Young Women Plucking the Fruits of Knowledge and
Science", on the left-hand panel she showed "Young Girls Pursuing Fame",
and on the right she depicted the arts of music and dancing. The colors
are cheerful, since it was felt that, as the painting was done for a national
fete, the mood should be jubilant.
The winter of 1893-1894 found Mary Cassatt
in Antibes, recovering from the effort of producing her color prints and
the mural for Chicago. It was there she began to paint one of her largest
canvases, The Boating Party, which was highly influenced by Manet's
painting In the Boat, which she had persuaded the Havemyers to
buy for their collection. At the end of the following year, Mary had her
second one-woman show at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris, and she bought
the Chateau de Beaufresne at Mesnil-Theribus on the Oise, 43 km from Paris,
which was to be her summer home for the rest of her life.
It was not until 1898 that Mary Cassatt, for
the first time since she had settled in Paris in 1874, visited the US, in
order to see her family and friends. She had delayed her return home until
this point partly because she was afraid of sea travel, and also because
her ailing parents had needed her to stay with them in Paris. But after
her mother died in 1898, there were no close family links to keep her in
Europe, and she was free to visit her brothers Gardner and Alexander and
their families in Philadelphia and Boston. While in the US, Mary Cassatt
decided to concentrate on pastels alone, as they were more portable than
oils, and therefore more suitable for the journey home. Most of the subjects
she painted there were women and children. Her attention was rather diverted
from her own work when she returned to Europe; she made an extended visit
to Italy with the Havemyers to advise on the purchase of paintings.
The artist continued to produce a large number
of paintings and pastels during the early years of the century, and she
managed to preserve her good health and strength until she was in her sixties.
However, after a tragic trip to Egypt in 1912 during which her brother Gardner
died, she found herself depressed, ill, and unable to work for almost two
years. Her eyesight was gradually failing due to inoperable cataracts and
because of this, the colors in her pastels became more and more strident
and less subtle, although the artist considered them to be her best works.
After a last outburst of work in 1913, Mary Cassatt stopped producing pictures
almost entirely, and retired to the South of France during the first world
war. She lived on in seclusion and virtual blindness, unable to work, until
her death in at the Chateau de Beaufresne.

^
 Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania,
US, into a well-to-do family. Her father, Robert Cassatt, was a successful
stockbroker and financier. Her mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston, came from
a banking family, which had provided her with a good education. The Cassatt
family was of French Huguenot origin; they escaped persecutions and came
to New York in 1662.
During the childhood of the future artist,
the family traveled in Europe, lived in France and Germany (1851-1855).
During her 4-year stay in Europe Mary became fluent in French and German.
Returning to Pennsylvania in 1855, the Cassatt family settled in Philadelphia.
At the age of 15 Mary decided to become an artist and enrolled in 1861 at
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She took art
classes for 4 years (1861-1865) and continued to pursue studies on her own.
Soon she got frustrated with the education in the US. She felt she needed
to study in Europe, her choice was Paris. Her mother supported her daughter’s
desire. Since the Ecole des Beaux-Arts did not admit women, she (in 1866)
studied for a short period in the studio of Charles Chaplin, then took private
lessons from Jean-Léon Gérôme. In addition, Cassatt registered among the
copyists at the Louvre. In 1868 her painting was exhibited for the 1st time
in the Salon. The most important influence on Cassatt in the years before
1875 was exercised by Edouard
Manet, although he did not accept students, she saw his works and they
were much discussed both by painters and art critics.
The Franco-Prussian war (1870) made Cassatt
return to the US for the next year and a half. The US atmosphere was so
discouraging that she almost gave up painting. Late in 1871 she was on her
way back to Europe, setting in Parma, where she copied works by Correggio for
the archbishop of Pittsburgh. In Parma she spent 8 happy months.
In late September of 1872 she went to Spain studying
first the paintings of Velázquez, Murillo, Titian, and Rubens at the Prado,
then continuing on to Seville, where she began to paint her first major
body of works based on Spanish subjects: Spanish Dancer Wearing
a Lace Mantilla, Toreador and
others.
After a brief return to Paris in April of 1873,
she visited Holland and Belgium, and then traveled back south to Rome. In
1874 Cassatt finally decided to settle in Paris. Aided by her elder sister,
Lydia, who joined Mary in Europe, she took an apartment and studio.
Lydia was not only the elder sister, but
also the closest friend and model of Mary. There are eleven known works
with Lydia, among them are The Cup of Tea,
Lydia Working at a Tapestry
Loom, Lydia Crocheting in
the Garden at Marly, Woman and Child Driving.
Lydia died at the end of 1882 of Bright’s disease, and it was a severe blow
to Mary.
Cassatt became known as a portrait painter and
was sought after by American visitors to France: Portrait of an Elderly
Lady. As the sitters are often known, many of Cassatt’s works can
be considered portraits: Mary Ellison Embroidering,
Reading Le Figaro..
Her work differed from the stiff academic tradition of portrait painting
as a mere likeness insofar as most of her subjects were either engaged in
some kind of activity or caught in a casual pose.
In 1877 Cassatt met Degas,
who advised her to join the Impressionists. “I accepted with joy. Now I
could work with absolute independence without considering the opinion of
a jury. I had already recognized who were my true masters. I admired Manet,
Courbet, and Degas. I took leave of conventional art. I began to live.”
A close friendship with Degas began, which lasted until Degas’ death in
1917. Degas and Renoir greatly influenced
her style of painting. For a long time Cassatt was even thought of as a
student of Degas. Though their relations were those of two friends, and
the influence was mutual. Once, on seeing some of Mary’s work, Degas said
that he would not have admitted that a woman could draw so well.
In 1877 her parents came to Paris to live with her permanently. Success
of the IV Impressionist Exhibition, and Cassatt’s in particular, made her
father believe at last that the daughter had chosen the right way in life.
Between 1879 and 1882 The Independents, as the Impressionists used to call
themselves, held their group exhibitions annually, thus providing Cassatt
with the opportunity to show her work. In the US she was exhibiting regularly
with the Society of American Artists in New York.
The two decades around the turn of the century
proved to be a highly successful and productive period for Cassatt. She
focused almost exclusively on the depiction of mothers and children, these
works today are her best-known and most popular, e.g. The
Child's Caress., The Bath. Almost
all of Cassatt’s mother and child scenes do not depict actual mothers with
their own children, since the artist preferred to select his models and
match the appropriate physical types in order to achieve the desired results.
From 1890 she also produced prints, e.g. The Letter,
In the Omnibus,
etc. Cassatt’s father died in 1891, and the mother in 1895.
In 1898 Mary returned to the US for the 1st time in over
25 years, visiting relatives, friends and collectors. In 1901 she visited
Italy and Spain, in 1908 made the last trip to the USA. In 1910-12 she traveled
extensively in Europe and in the Middle East. In 1904 she was accepted into
the Legion of Honour and in 1910 became a member of the National Academy
of Design in New York.
Cassatt’s last years were overshadowed with
the loss of close people, relatives and friends. She suffered from many
diseases, like diabetes and had cataracts on both eyes, which eventually
reduced her to near blindness. She lived in solitude at the Château de Beaufresne,
accompanied only by her longtime housekeeper, Mathilde Valet, or in the
south of France. At the outbreak of WWI Cassatt had to give up painting
entirely.
Cassatt’s name is less familiar than those of her
fellow Impressionist painters Degas, Monet or Renoir. However,
Mary Cassatt is highly original and interesting painter and her talent does
not yield to those with well-known names.

^
1887 Vincent Vidal, French painter born on 20 January
1811.
— Apollonie
Sabatier (400x241pix, 23kb) _ Before becoming the mistress of the Belgian
financier and patron of the arts Alfred Mosselman, “Apollonie
Sabatier” (real name: Aglaé-Joséphine Savatier) “la
Présidente” [1822-1889] spent some of her time working as an artists'
model, and always enjoyed the company of artists and writers. At 4 rue Frochot
in Paris she kept a literary salon, frequented by Flaubert [12 Dec 1821 –
08 May 1880] and Baudelaire [09 Apr 1821 – 31 Aug 1867], among others. She
is one of the four courtesans featured in the book Grandes Horizontales
(2003) by Virginia Rounding, but in this portrait she is vertical (and fully clothed).
She is portrayed (horizontal and not clothed) in sexual ecstasy in the scandalous
sculpture Femme
piquée par un serpent (1847, 180x57x70cm) (the snake is not very
noticeable) by Jean-Baptiste Clésinger [20 Oct 1814 – 05 Jan 1883]. —(060613)

1874 Julien-Léopold (Jules) Boilly, French painter and printmaker
born on 30 August 1797. — Related? to Louis-Léopold Boilly [05
Jul 1761 – 04 Jan 1845]? — The son of wood-carver Arnould Boilly
[1764–1797], he lived in Douai until 1778, when he went to Arras to receive instruction
in trompe l’oeil painting from Dominique Doncre [1743–1820]. He moved to Paris
in 1785. Between 1789 and 1791 he painted eight small scenes on moralizing and
amorous subjects for the Avignon collector Esprit-Claude-François Calvet [1728–1810],
including The Visit (1789). He exhibited at the Salon between 1791 and
1824 and received a gold medal at the Salon of 1804. From the beginning his genre
subjects were extremely popular with the public and collectors. In 1833, at a
time when his popularity was declining, he was admitted to the Légion d’honneur
and the Institut de France.
— Trompe
l'oeil of a bookshelf with a terracotta relief (40x32cm; 480x372pix, 28kb)